Why is exposure to political violence associated with both mobilising and demobilising outcomes? Community dynamics influence the local materialisation of violence engendered by supra-local political conflict. The reification of the driving political conflict as intracommunal or intergroup produces disparate outcomes. Exposure to violence may generate an enduring rift concretised through intimate bloodshed or could fashion a shared victimisation experience viable as a collective political mobilisation resource. In Cameroon, the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC) opposed French colonialism through political action and guerilla warfare. Many saw the UPC as a heroic nationalist movement, others as murderers. Through interviews, I examine narratives that [re]construct social and political meaning out of conflict and death. These narratives of conflict are used to mobilise in places where the UPC was locally hegemonic and demobilise in politically competitive areas.